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Biochips may lead to Star-Trek-like tricorders
rde writes "This week's (print edition of) New Scientist tells us that Motorola's BioChip Systems Unit are building a biochip that "will eventually produce hand-held machines that can perform genetic tests or detect disease" -- a tricorder by any other name. Their web page only points you to the hard copy, but details can be found on CMPNet. " Darnit-I still need to know when I can put the network jack in my head. Writing all this e-mail through thought would be a lot nicer.
Actually, i think the sensor parts they are talking about are the tiny ones that float around in your stomach or bloodstream, and other such implants. They would be able to be read from close range by a hand help device via short range radio signals.
And that woudl be neat if they were properly secure.. like i personally have to "will" the reading, like pilots can "will" those experimental planes to turn..
This sounds interesting, but it's got nothing to do with a tricorder. It's talking about a mix of technologies including hybridization arrays like Affymetrix makes, which involve isolating DNA, performing some reactions and then using the chip and a scanner to analyze the results. I saw a demo of Caliper's microfluidics a while ago and was really impressed - basically it's like a CPU with liquid reagents instead of electrons. It uses minuscule volumes, which makes it really quick, precise and efficient. Cool, but not a nonivasive diagnostic tool like a tricorder.
Actually, a tricorder is more similar to CAT/PET/MRI imaging.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Not by a fair margin, if they're talking about the kind of biological sensors that I've been hearing about. By combining biological components with integrated circuit chips, you can fabricate sensors on the chip that are sensitive to various complicated organic chemicals and the like - but you'd still have to do something like breathe on the chip or put a blood sample on the chip to get a reading. You can't just wave it at someone and get information.
This kind of device does have many applications. Detailed organic chemical analysis right now requires some fairly expensive equipment (gas chromatographs, mass spectrometers, and IR and UV spectrometers). If you can do useful work with a smaller, cheaper component, then it will indeed quietly revolutionize substantial parts of the medical and forensic and chemical analysis industries. However, we're still a ways away from waving a lipstick container at somebody and getting a medical diagnosis. What this will mainly do is give you good quality readings on organic compounds suspended in a liquid or wafting through the air.
I'll have to read the specific article in question before making more detailed comments.
Darnit-I still need to know when I can put the network jack in my head. Writing all this e-mail through thought would be a lot nicer.
This is being worked on. Prof. Kensall Wise has been publishing papers on neural interfaces for over a decade, and at least one other group exists doing similar things. Heck, _I_ hope to be doing similar things (my fourth-year project; I'll post a link once it's underway). Reading thoughts electronically is probably impractical, but there are still a number of nifty things that you can do with regards to interfacing with peripherals.
You don't need a network jack in your head to dictate your thoughts. There is already research underway for using external measurements of brainwaves for computer input (like mouse control). Sorry, but I don't have any links to relevant stories.
Personally, I think that voice recognition and eye tracking (for mouse control, in particular) are the most promissing up and coming technologies for computer input.
There was a story on NPR about this a few months back; the idea was that they would use chip fabrication technologies, but instead of making transistors and traces, they would make microscopic compartments and tubes to connect them, so you could have the equivalent of thousands of flasks on a chip to do complicated chemical analysis.
On a different note, there are currently some really interesting cancer treatments being researched which use an individual's cancer cells to create antibodies which attack the cancer cells.
So imagine this - you go see the doctor and he suspects cancer. He pulls out his tricorder, attaches a sterile hollow needle and pokes it into the suspected tumor. It sucks a few cells up into the chemchip. It analyzes them, determines they are malignant, creates antibodies for the cancer cells, and injects them through the needle. All in a few seconds. A red light comes on the tricorder, and the doctor tells you "Yes, that lump was cancerous, but it has been inoculated. You will notice some soreness and swelling in the area for a few days as the tumor subsides."